


To Befriend a Reaper

by goodbyegoodbyegoodday



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Chronic Illness tw, F/M, Fluff, Grim reaper au, I'm Bad At Summaries, but its okay, chapters arent going to be long either this is mostly to get motivation back, dying reader tw, fret not, hes a grim reaper idk what you'd expect besides a dying reader :/, no beta we die like men, there will be a decent amount of fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:27:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26396395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodbyegoodbyegoodday/pseuds/goodbyegoodbyegoodday
Summary: Your illness is all you've known for a long while now. You ever-lessening days are monotonous, nurses come to check on you, roommates come and go, most leaving this earth. But there's a man you see wandering the sterile halls of your hospital unit at night, and its doesn't take long to figure out the nature of his visits.
Relationships: Grim reaper! Levi/reader, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin)/Reader, Levi/Reader
Comments: 12
Kudos: 122





	1. Heart-Rate Monitor Blues

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize, these chapters will not be long. These are mostly to get me back into the rhythm of writing so I can continue my other Levi story.  
> This concept has been in my head for a while now and I'm finally putting it to 'paper'.

The rhythmic beeps of the machines next to your bed were almost soothing at this point. It had been in your life for so long that it might as well be the only constant you knew. Symptoms ebbed and slowed, worsened then fleetingly got better. You’d been here so long you’d said goodbye to a handful of nurses even as they made rotations through the floors of the hospital.

“I know you.” You spoke to the man standing over your sleeping roommate’s bed, drinking in what little features you could make out in the dim light of the machines and crescent moon before shifting your gaze to the other woman. “I didn’t think it would be her time already.”

His slate grey gaze shifted up to you slowly, as if he didn’t know at at once that he was the one that you were speaking to. When they finally met your eyes, you smiled sadly, nodding towards your friend.

“Please be gentle with her soul. She _is_ a gentle soul.” Your voice croaked and you swallowed a cough that threatened to tickle up your throat.

He looked at you a moment longer, weighing what you had said in his mind. It seemed like he was still a bit surprised that you could see him, with the measured look he was giving you. Silence overtook the room again, save for the beeping of machines.

He roamed the halls at night. Sometimes the day too, but it seemed that most of the people in your unit left this plane in their sleep. Whether that was his doing or chance you didn’t know, but you were grateful anyways. You had asked about him one day, the second time he had visited a roommate of yours, to which the nurse met your inquiry with a worried look and whispers to the others at the nurses’ station. After a psychiatrist met with you later that day, you didn’t mention him again. Even when he took the roommate with him on his next visit.

You once thought you saw him standing over your bed when you awoke from your slumber, gasping for air and your heart-rate monitor speeding. But the apparition was gone the second the hurried nurse actually ran though him. For some reason, you knew he wasn’t a ghost. He was too tangible, despite someone walking through him. He couldn’t be a demon, the air didn’t prickle, the shadows didn’t loom longer or deeper, hooves never clicked against the sterile tile flooring when he made those visits. He wasn’t an angel. The lights didn’t glare brighter, the world didn’t seem to sing around him, and no wings outstretched from his back. No, he was simply the person who took you to meet either one of those two being. A ferryman. An escort. A transporter of souls.

A reaper.

His gaze finally broke yours and even though he gave no sign of response, you somehow knew that he had agreed to your request.

“When my time comes, will you be the one to take me?”

He doesn’t look up from your friends sleeping form as if he didn’t hear.

“Will you do it when I am awake? I’d enjoy it if your face was the last I see while I’m alive.”

His brows knit at that and he looks at you again briefly.

“Do you have a name? I know fairytales warn us humans to not tell our names to otherworldy beings such as demons or fae, but I don’t think you’re either of those. We’ll I know you’re not a demon, I guess reapers could be fae, but I’m dying anyways and have nothing to my name, so you have nothing to gain from knowing it. Plus it’s on the chart at the end of my bed, it’s not like it’s hard to come by.” And you tell him your name, in full, and hope he tells you his.

It seems like so long since you’ve had a conversation with someone. A real one. One where the other’s voice wasn’t a laced with pity, where their eyes held sympathy for your impending doom. You were desperate, and who better to make friends with than a grim reaper. Death was their domain, they couldn’t feel pity for you, it was their world.

“Levi.” His voice was deep, threatening to rattle your bones. But a splitting grin stretched across your face before you could help it.

“Levi,” You repeated it, excitement that you hadn’t felt in what felt like years filling your chest. “You will return tomorrow, right? You come three days in a row.”

He finally looked up at you again, taking in your haggard and sickly appearance. But the way your smile brightened up the dark circles in your eyes and filled in your hallow cheeks at the thought of his return stirred something long still in his chest.

He only nodded again before he turned his back and left you alone with the beeping of your machines.


	2. Bed Time Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your candle is quite low.  
> Are you watching it burn?
> 
> Tell me a story, Levi.

“You came back!” You chirped when the reaper passed into your room.

“Of course I came back, you said it yourself yesterday that I come three days in a row.” His response was quick, eyes half-lidded and you could tell he did his best not to roll them, but it did nothing to suppress your excitement.

“And you’re talking to me today!”

“I talked to you yesterday. You’re too young for dementia, aren’t you?” This time he did roll his eyes and in the back of your mind you wondered if reapers had a code of conduct that they were held to when they interacted with humans. Though judging by his surprise at your ability to see him, you guessed human and ferryman-of-death conversations were not commonplace.

“No, you only told me your name, that’s not _talking_.”

“What would you call it then?”

“An utterance of a single word does not ‘talking’ make.” Crossing your arms in front of you dramatically, it was obvious that you were having a grand time.

“Someone call the _Globe_ , because Shakespeare is in Hospice.” The reaper’s reply was quick and snarky, but there was humor behind his tone. Or at least that’s what you told yourself.

“ _’Frailty, thy name is y/n._ ’” You quote Hamlet easy, replacing ‘woman’ with your own name. When you’re stuck in bed all day, what better things did you have to do besides watch bootleg plays on repeat. “And hey, I’m dying, aren’t you supposed to be nice to people who are dying?”

“Aren’t you tired of that? Fake-nice to the sick?” Levi moved to your roommate’s bed, as was his place.

“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I am.” You signed wistfully, not looking away from his enchanting beauty even as he turned his attention to the sleeping. She was getting worse, which was why he was here, wasn’t it?

It was hard, watching her deteriorate each 24-hour passage. Hell, you could probably measure it by the hour. Sometimes, you wished you were placed in a single room. To avoid the mirroring of what was happening to you at a slower rate. Each passing, you were forced to reckon with your fate. But your insurance wouldn’t cover the cost of a single, and the nurses always assured you that the doctor didn’t want you alone. Something about having someone keep you company being better for your health. That made you wonder about the toll that your company put on their health, considering all of them had made their journey past the veil.

“Were you human?” You blurted out suddenly after a stretch of silence. But heat started to creep up your face as the realization that that might have been a very personal question for someone.

“Yes. But that was a long time ago.” He didn’t seem to mind the over-stepping, and for that you were thankful.

“Did you choose to become a reaper?” Give someone an inch, and they’ll take a mile, or so that saying goes. But who could blame you? Everyday marked closer to your impending doom, and while that was the same for everyone, your expiration date was far sooner that it justly should have been. It was okay to take risks, such as offending the reaper that would very well be collecting your soul and delivering it to whichever afterlife you deserved.

Levi took a moment to consider your question before answering. You couldn’t tell from his pensive expression whether he was considering answering your question or not, or how to answer it. If he decided not to answer, you couldn’t blame him. While desperate for connection, you did understand that there may be certain lines that the other-worldly beings could not cross.

“Not necessarily. Its been so long, I hardly remember. It wasn’t a conscience choice, but maybe one made for me by this shitty universe. Maybe it thought this would suit me considering the life I lead.”

“Will you tell me a story of your life, Levi?” It didn’t have to be the whole thing. Just something. He fascinated you so, and the little snippets you were getting were doing nothing but feeding the flames of your all-consuming curiosity. “It doesn’t even have to be true, if you don’t want it to.”

“That desperate, huh?” He teased, but you didn’t sense malice, especially not with the softening of his eyes at the grin that stretched across your face. “Do you ever sleep?”

“You mostly come at night, so I stay awake to catch a glimpse.” It was sweet, your level of honesty.

You almost think you catch him get bashful, but the expression is gone before you can process it. So, Levi makes his way from your neighbor to take the seat in the plush visitors chair next to your hospital bed. And he weaved you a story. A story of violence, of friendship, of comrades, of bravery, of death, and of victory. He told you of an underground city, of chosen family, of loss. Spoke of monsters bigger than buildings with a taste for human flesh, of destruction, of being caged behind even larger walls. Then of devices that could make humans fly, the feeling of freedom, and of brutal, cathartic, vengeance.

You listened intently, eyes wide and breath hitched as he spoke. The beeping of your heartrate monitor like a metronome to keep tempo. Of course you knew world history, of the island of Paradis and the titans that roamed it over a thousand years ago, but whether he was making the details up, if Levi really was humanities strongest, you didn’t know the veracity. But it didn’t matter if it was true, all that mattered was watching the emotions that flitted through those slate eyes. The passion that he let seep into his voice as he told you of the comrades that he made and lost. Soon, the room took a faint orange glow at the sun peaked its face over the horizon, and he took pause and stood. In an attempt to get him to stay, you reached for his hand, and to your surprise, you grasped it instead of passing through.

“There’s one more day, right? You’ll return tonight, right, Levi?” Your eyes were wide, and somehow it accentuated the dark circles that lay beneath them. But as they say, shadows only exist because of light, and the hope in your eyes burned bright.

“How many times do I have to repeat myself,” He snarked, but returned a squeeze to your hand nevertheless. 

As he left, the nurse coming in to make her rounds passed through him and he never broke stride.

You never once considered what it meant that he had spent the night in the place next to your bed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Again this is going to be a shorter story since its to get motivation back up for my other, main story, but I am still putting a lot into it, dont worry!! 
> 
> Please tell me what you think! I love both compliments and criticisms!!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'd love to read comments if you have them, good or bad! Also please check out my other Levi story, Nothing to Lose, Vengeance to Gain, which has over 34,000 words thus far and I will be updating within the next few days!


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